iter

The People's Bank of China today reiterated in its financial education campaign that virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether do not have legal tender status and cannot be used for currency circulation; conducting virtual currency-related businesses within the country is considered illegal financial activity and is strictly prohibited.The People's Bank of China stated that without the consent of relevant authorities, domestic entities and their controlled overseas entities are not allowed to issue virtual currencies abroad, and no units or individuals, whether domestic or foreign, are permitted to issue stablecoins pegged to the Renminbi abroad. The People's Bank reminds the public not to participate in virtual currency issuance, trading, investment, or mining activities, to be wary of high-yield investment scams, and to avoid renting out bank cards, payment accounts, or participating in virtual currencies.In addition, the People's Bank advises caution against virtual currency investment products and trading platforms that claim "guaranteed profits" or "high interest"; not to participate in virtual currency issuance, trading, investment, or "mining" activities; not to join communities promoting virtual currency activities, not to click on links containing overseas virtual currency trading platforms, or download related apps; not to lend or rent out bank cards or payment accounts, not to buy or sell virtual currencies "on behalf of others" as instructed, and not to act as "drivers," "currency dealers," or "U merchants"; and to report any clues related to virtual currency business activities to the relevant regulatory authorities in a timely manner.

The North Korean hacker group WaterPlum disguises itself as a cryptocurrency, AI, and NFT company recruiter, deploying malware disguised as programming tasks or video conference repair files to software developers and IT professionals.The organization has infected at least 30,000 devices in over 100 countries and extracted funds or account credentials from more than 7,000 cryptocurrency wallets between December 2025 and July 2026, stealing at least $10.7 million.

According to Cointelegraph, in response to a previous report by The Wall Street Journal regarding European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde pressuring Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to block Binance's MiCA license application, a Binance spokesperson told Cointelegraph that they "do not comment on speculative reports" and reiterated their intention to seek long-term compliance under the EU MiCA framework.Previously, Binance applied for a MiCA license in Greece in January 2026. In mid-June, reports indicated that the Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC) planned to reject the application. Binance subsequently withdrew the application a few days before the MiCA deadline on July 1, stating that they would seek authorization from other EU member states. The European Central Bank and the Hellenic Capital Market Commission have not responded to the related reports.

According to The Block, Grayscale's research director Zach Pandl stated that the approximately $58,000 low reached around June 30 remains his assessment of the bottom of the current bear market phase, and Grayscale is currently advising clients to allocate Bitcoin.Pandl mentioned in an interview with The Block during the Avalanche summit in New York that they have maintained the view that $58,000 is the bottom of this bear market phase for the past few months. This assessment echoes the comments made by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who stated on September 10 that Bitcoin has bottomed out in the current cycle and expects a sustained upward trend for the next two years.Pandl stated that Grayscale uses a three-part framework to assess whether clients should allocate Bitcoin, including long-term structural trends, market cycle phases, and macro context. He believes that all three conditions are currently met, thus giving clients the "green light" to allocate Bitcoin. As of Thursday morning, Bitcoin was above $76,000, up 0.8% in 24 hours, but still down about 39% from its historical high of approximately $126,000.Pandl also compared Bitcoin with Zcash, noting that Grayscale has offered investment products for Zcash for about nine years. He believes that Zcash occupies an "underutilized and unexplored design space," rather than directly competing with Bitcoin, and pointed out that as artificial intelligence becomes more powerful, privacy issues are receiving more attention, with Zcash providing investors a way to express their views on personal and financial privacy.

According to The Wall Street Journal, smart ring manufacturer Oura has listed Robinhood as an underwriter in its IPO filing, marking Robinhood's first formal involvement in IPO underwriting. Oura's listing is expected to be valued at over $11 billion, with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Allen & Co., and Jefferies serving as co-lead underwriters, while Robinhood ranks last among the 18 underwriting firms.Robinhood received regulatory approval for underwriting business in June this year. As an underwriter, Robinhood is expected to gain greater influence over how many shares Oura ultimately allocates to its clients. Current popular IPOs typically prioritize allocations to institutional investors, and the shares available to retail investors through brokers often fall short of actual demand. Robinhood has previously established several connections with Oura. Oura has invited Robinhood's former CFO Jason Warnick to join its board; the closed-end fund launched by Robinhood in March of this year also invested in Oura, which accounts for 3.64% of the fund's assets. However, Georgetown University finance professor Reena Aggarwal believes that Robinhood's initial influence in the IPO underwriting market may still be limited.

Users can send supported tokens from networks such as Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, and Sui to Jupiter without using bridging tools and directly receive USDC in their Solana wallet. This feature integrates routing, cross-chain bridging, and exchange processes, allowing users to avoid switching networks or executing additional transactions.Currently, the service adopts a uniform fixed fee rate, charging $0.30 per transaction, regardless of whether the transfer amount is $100 or $10 million, the fee remains unchanged.

Famous gold bull and Bitcoin bear Peter Schiff posted that he is skeptical about today's sharp rise in MSTR, which he believes is primarily driven by short covering, and reiterated his "death spiral" argument.Even though Bitcoin's temporary rebound has slightly extended the survival period of Strategy, his long-term bearish stance remains unchanged.

Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) has suspended its Black Sea route service to Russia due to a drone attack.

According to Bloomberg, Chinese artificial intelligence company Z.AI (Zhìpǔ) has confirmed that the mysterious artificial intelligence model Ox Alpha, which has rapidly risen to the top of online usage rankings, is a new iteration of its GLM series.The company stated in response to a Bloomberg News inquiry that it will release the model weights for Ox Alpha tonight.

JPMorgan reiterated its "overweight" rating on SpaceX (SPCX.O) and a target price of $240, citing increasing confidence in the prospects of Grok artificial intelligence. The firm highlighted SpaceX's acquisition of Cursor, which reportedly has an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of about $4 billion, with 75% coming from enterprise business.JPMorgan expects that Cursor will enhance SpaceX's enterprise artificial intelligence strategy, model training data, and the performance of Grok.

According to informed sources, the artificial intelligence company Anthropic plans to bring Citigroup into its main underwriting syndicate for its initial public offering. If it goes ahead, Citigroup will join Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase in a core underwriting role. Anthropic may submit its listing application to regulators as early as the end of this month.

According to The Block, Benchmark analysts reiterated their buy rating on the tokenized company Securitize ($SECZ), while lowering its target price from $16 to $10, believing that the company's approximately 29% two-day decline after its first public earnings report was an overreaction.Securitize disclosed a 5% decline in revenue in its first earnings report as a public company and recorded an adjusted EBITDA loss, while also lowering its full-year outlook. Analysts pointed out that despite the short-term performance pressure, they still maintain a positive outlook on its long-term tokenization business prospects, thus maintaining the buy rating.

The Federal Reserve's Harker reiterated that interest rates must be raised now, and the labor market is stable.

The Solana ecosystem lending protocol Jupiter launched Lend v2 on Monday, allowing deposit and borrowing positions to simultaneously act as trading liquidity, enabling users to earn lending interest and exchange fee sharing from the same funds.This product introduces optional Smart Collateral and Smart Debt features, which automatically pair assets to correlated liquidity pools. When traders route exchanges through these pools, deposit users' yields can be enhanced, and borrowing costs can be offset.In correlated pools, even if one stablecoin depegs, borrowers are still protected; however, collateral providers will bear the losses of any asset. Jupiter limits this design to stablecoin trading pairs and trading pairs composed of SOL and its staked versions to mitigate correlated risks.

According to South Korean media NATE, the Korea Regulatory Reform Committee has proposed amendments to the enforcement decree of the Specific Financial Transaction Information Act, excluding minor violations from the qualification restrictions for major shareholders of Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP).This move has sparked discussions in the market regarding exchange mergers and acquisitions, the entry of new businesses, and the fairness of regulation. The proposal to relax restrictions also involves issues related to the boundaries of the enforcement decree's authority.

According to The Block, research firm Bernstein reaffirmed its "Outperform" rating and maintained a target price of $140 after Circle announced its Q2 2026 financial results, believing that the company's latest performance constitutes a "reverse validation" of the market's bearish views. Bernstein analysts stated that the market currently underestimates USDC's long-term growth potential and Circle's advantages in distribution channels, liquidity, and regulatory compliance, due to two major core concerns regarding Circle—intensifying competition in stablecoins and changes in the interest rate environment that may affect reserve income.Investors may not have fully accounted for the future revenue opportunities from transaction fees, partner ecosystems, and the Arc blockchain that Circle could generate. The firm specifically pointed out that several infrastructure initiatives recently advanced by Circle, including obtaining a national trust bank license in the U.S., expanding the Circle Payments Network, and the planned launch of the Arc public chain mainnet on September 16, could all become future growth drivers. Additionally, Bernstein noted that Circle has raised its guidance for other revenues and profit margins after deducting distribution costs for 2026, expecting to confirm approximately $180 million in Arc token presale revenue.Analysts believe that future staking yields, gas fees, and ecosystem partnership revenues from Arc have not been fully reflected in current valuation expectations. As of the end of Q2, the circulating supply of USDC was $73.3 billion, a decrease of 5% from the previous quarter but an increase of 19% year-over-year. Bernstein believes that Circle is shifting from a purely crypto trading infrastructure to payments, real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, and broader financial infrastructure, which will drive USDC into the next phase of growth. Circle's stock closed at $63.28 on Wednesday, and Bernstein's target price of $140 implies a potential upside of about 121%.

According to Jinshi reports, the Italian Foreign Minister stated that he had a conversation with the Iranian Foreign Minister, who introduced the negotiations between Iran and Oman regarding the reopening of commercial navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. The Italian Foreign Minister reiterated the importance of continuing dialogue in order to quickly find a political solution and avoid further escalation with the United States.

According to Jinshi reports, the Italian Ministry of Defense issued a statement on August 2, stating that the Italian Navy, executing a long-term EU military operation in the Mediterranean, intercepted a sanctioned Russian "shadow fleet" tanker on the same day. The tanker was intercepted in waters west of Pantelleria, and the captain refused to cooperate. An Italian military team conducted a boarding inspection, with support from Greek naval vessels and Polish maritime patrol aircraft.

According to Jinshi reports, the Federal Reserve reiterated in the FOMC statement that economic activity is expanding at a robust pace.